2014 Events Archive

The USF Center for Asia Pacific Studies is pleased to announce its fall symposium, “Advertising and Marketing in China: Chinese-Western Cultural Encounters (19th c. - Present).” The symposium is designed to facilitate an interdisciplinary conversation and the sharing of research among scholars and contemporary professionals on the topic of advertising and marketing in China from the 19th century to the present. Presenters are encouraged to examine advertising and marketing in China during this period as a lens for understanding cultural encounters between China and the West. Scholars as well as advertising and marketing professionals are invited to share their insight on how culture has influenced the advertising and marketing of Western products in China and Chinese products in the West. Proposed themes include but are not limited to: issues of modernity, visual culture, medical exchange, relations of power, issues of gender, cultural identity, e-business and the influence of smartphones and the internet, etc.

Join us for a conversation with two award-winning translators as they discuss the rewards and challenges of translating fiction and poetry from the Chinese-speaking world in the new millennium. World-renowned translator Howard Goldblatthas published over thirty works of Chinese fiction into English including Red Sorghum (Mo Yan), My Life as Emperor (Su Tong),Playing for Thrills (Wang Shuo), and Notes of a Desolate Man (Chu T'ien-wen). Andrea Lingenfelter, USF Kiriyama Fellow (2013-14), has translated Farewell My Concubine (Lilian Lee),Candy (Mian Mian), The Last Princess of Manchuria (Lilian Lee), The Changing Room (Zhai Yongming), and composed the subtitles for Chen Kaige's 2006 film, Temptress Moon.

Moderated by Wei Yang, Assistant Professor, Department of Modern and Classical Languages at USF.

For more information please contact the Center for Asia Pacific Studies at x 6357.

This event is a two part series presented with San Francisco State University. On November 8, 2014 Howard Goldblatt will discuss the works of Huang Chunming's fiction of the last four decades, both in their original Chinese and Goldblatt's award-winning translations.

Wednesday — October 22, 2014 — 5:00-7:00 PM

USF Fromm Hall, Xavier Auditorium

Monkey Business: Contemporary Fiction and Poetry from Japan and the US

Monkey Business is a Tokyo- and Brooklyn-based annual literary journal which showcases Japanese fiction and poetry newly translated into English. The magazine draws a large part of its materials from the Japanese quarterlies Monkey Business (2008-2011) and Monkey (2013- ), but it also publishes new works by contemporary American and British writers popular in Japan, providing a literary space where new voices from both sides of the Pacific meet. Since 2011 there have been four issues, in which short stories, poems and essays by such noted writers as Paul Auster, Hideo Furukawa, Haruki Mirakami, and Richard Powers have been featured.

Two award-winning Japanese authors visit the Bay Area to discuss their writing, contemporary Japanese culture, and what it feels like to live in post-disaster Japan. They will e joined by Roland Kelts, author of "Japanamerica," and professor Ted Goossen, co-editor of "Monkey Business," the only English-language journal focused on Japanese literature, culture and visual art, and Dean Rader, professor and Chair, USF Department of English. There will be readings, discussions and a lively Q&A.

Community Partner: Japan Society of Northern California

Author bios:

Tomoka SHIBASAKI is known for novels and stories that capture the sensibilities of young women living in cities. Winners of the Oda Sakunosuke Prize and the Noma New Writers’ Award among others, she is the recipient of the 2014 Akutagawa Prize, the most prestigious literary award in Japan. Her books include "Asleep or Awake" (2010), "Viridian" (2011), and "In the City Where I Was Not" (2012). Translations in English include “The Seaside Road” and “The Glasses Thief,” which appeared respectively in Issues 2 and 3 of "Monkey Business."

Hiromi ITOH is a poet, novelist, essayist, and translator, and one of the most important female voices to come out in Japanese poetry of the late twentieth century. She is author of numerous books, including "La Niña" (1999), "Supernatural Stories from Japan" (2004), and "Wild Grass on a Riverbank" (2005). English translations include "Killing Kanoko: Selected Poems by Hiromi Itoh," translated by Jeffrey Angles (Action Books, 2009). She is recipient of numerous awards, including the Hagiwara Sakutaro Award and Murasaki Shikibu Literary Award.

Roland KELTS is the author of the critically acclaimed and best-selling "Japanamerica" (2007), and his articles, essays and stories are published in "The New Yorker," "Time," "Zoetrope: All Story," "The Village Voice," "The Wall Street Journal," "A Public Space," "Newsweek Japan," "Vogue," "Cosmopolitan," "The Yomiuri" and "The Japan Times" among others. He is also a regular contributor to CNN, The BBC, NPR and NHK. He is a visiting scholar at Keio University and contributing editor to "Monkey Business" who divides his time between Tokyo and New York City.

Ted GOOSEN teaches Japanese literature and film at York University in Toronto. He is the general editor of "The Oxford Book of Japanese Short Stories" and has published translations of stories and essays by Hiromi Kawakami, Haruki Murakami, Yoko Ogawa, Sachiko Kishimoto, and Naoya Shiga, among others. He is the co-founder and co-editor of Monkey Business.

Dean RADER, Professor and Chair, Department of English, University of San Francisco, has published widely in the fields of poetry, literary studies, American Indian studies, and visual/popular culture. His newest book "Engaged Resistance: American Indian Art, Literature, and Film from Alcatraz to the NMAI"(University of Texas Press, 2011) won the Beatrice Medicine Award for Excellence in American Indian Scholarship. His recent collection of poems, "Works & Days," won the 2010 T.S. Eliot Poetry Prize, was a finalist for the Bush Memorial First Book Prize, and won the Writer's League of Texas Book Award.

A talk by Dr. Joanne Rondilla, Lecturer, School of Social Transformation, Arizona State University

In 2003, an issue of Newsweek magazine features Saira Mohan, a Punjabi-French-Irish-Canadian model on its cover to highlight shifting global standards of beauty. In the corresponding story, authors Fred Guterl and Michael Hastings declare that Mohan is the "new global face of beauty." Part of the reason why she fits this title is because she is "just Asian enough to suit Western sensibilities, while retaining some ambiguity." By examining cosmetics advertisements, interviews with Filipinas, and observations from her field research, Dr. Rondilla interrogates the idea that global standards of beauty are shifting. In particular, she looks at how mixed race bodies are used to re-enforce racial hierarchy by highlighting that beauty is global as long as it appeals to Euro-American sensibilities.

Presented by: The Center for Asia Pacific Studies and the Yuchengco Philippine Studies Program

Cosponsored by: Asian Studies and Asian American Studies at the University of San Francisco

Wednesday — September 17, 2014 — 5:00-7:00 PM

USF Fromm Hall, Xavier Auditorium

HAFU: The Mixed Race Experience in Japan

A Film Screening and Q&A with Director Megumi Nishikura

Hafu is the unfolding journey of discovery into the intricacies of mixed-race Japanese and their multicultural experience in modern day Japan. The film follows the lives of five "hafus"—the Japanese term for people who are half-Japanese—as they explore what it means to be multiracial and multicultural in a nation that once proudly proclaimed itself as the mono-ethnic nation.

Presented by: The Center for Asia Pacific Studies

Community Partners: Consulate General of Japan, JETAANC, USF Office of Diversity and Community Outreach

Wednesday — September 10, 2014 — 5:00-6:30 PM

USF Fromm Hall, Maraschi Room

China's Reigning Ambassador: The Giant Panda

Join us for an intimate conversation with Colby Loucks, Deputy Director of the Wildlife Conservation Program at WWF to get a closer look at how China's dedication to save one of the world's best-loved species has elevated it's influence in conservation both domestically and overseas, as well as the cross-cultural connections that have been created between the non-profit and business worlds through such efforts, and how an emerging class of new wealth in the country has brought a new battle, combatting a great appetite for luxury wildlife products.

Presented by: The Center for Asia Pacific Studies

Cosponsored by: The USF Environmental Studies Department

Tuesday — August 26, 2014 — 5:00-6:30 PM

USF McLaren Center, Room 250

BOLLYWOOD NATION: India through its Cinema

A talk by Professor Vamsee Juluri, USF Media Studies Department

In this talk based on his critically acclaimed new book, Professor Vamsee Juluri spells out the close connection between cinema, modernity and democracy in the country as it embarks now into a new era of aspiration and super-power dreams under the leadership of its new Prime Minister, Narendra Modi.

Presented by: The Center for Asia Pacific Studies

Cosponsored by: The USF Media Studies Department

Thursday — May 1, 2014 — 5:00-6:30 PM

USF Fromm Hall, Xavier Room

Kaifeng and Beyond: Jewish Life in China, Past and Present

Three international experts on the history, spirituality, and current situation of China’s Jews, from the oldest Jewish community in Kaifeng to modern refugees in Shanghai and the Northeast, will present their findings in a workshop setting. Dr. Jordan Paper will speak on "The Chinese Jewish Understanding of God.” Dr. Xu Xin will talk about three waves of Jewish immigration to China 1850-1949, discussing what brought them, how they fared, and why they eventually left. Rabbi Anson Laytner will examine the Jewish community in Kaifeng from the 1950s on, with a focus on their contemporary situation, including issues of identity, economics and immigration. Adjunct Professor Andrew Ramer will serve as discussant. Presentations will be followed by a Q & A. Moderated by Andrea Lingenfelter, 2013-14 Kiriyama Fellow, USF.

Cosponsored by: The Swig Program in Jewish Studies and Social Justice

Tuesday – April 22, 2014USF Fromm Hall, Berman Room

OFF THE GRID: Asian Inspiration & Entrepreneurship

A talk by Matt Cohen, CEO & Founder, Off the Grid

Originally from Denver, Colorado, Matt Cohen’s travels took him all the way to Japan, where he taught English with the JET program for more than three years. It was there that Matt first experienced one of Asia’s fabled night markets. “While living in Japan I got interested in classic Asian night markets, and I wanted to create a similar experience in the United States… I also became hopelessly obsessed with ramen [that is often sold off food carts].” With this in mind, Matt returned to the States and settled in the Bay Area, where he launched his critically acclaimed ramen cart, Tabe. In 2010, Matt founded Off the Grid, effectively bringing much of the feeling of an Asian market state-side.

Interrogating Intersectionality in North East Asia: How do Race, Gender and Class work in contemporary Japan, South Korea, and China?

This mini-symposium explores how race, gender and class compete as well as coalesce in China, South Korea and Japan as individuals and groups seek to navigate the social and political spheres. Several prominent social scientists will present their work on North East Asian societies and facilitate an interdisciplinary discussion on the analytical utility and applicability of the intersectional approach.

Translating contemporary Chinese literature, Andrea Lingenfelter bridges cultures via a craft that intersects scholarship and art. Dr. Lingenfelter will talk about what she has learned in her life as a translator of poetry, fiction, and film subtitles. Informed by decades of experience with different genres, she will address some of the issues that confront the translator—rhetoric, style, esthetics, sound and syntax, idioms, culture, audience, and ethics.

Join the Center for Asia Pacific Studies as we celebrate the Year of the Horse. We’ve invited Weishan Liu (Virtuoso and Music Director) and Anna Wong (Artist) of the San Francisco Guzheng Music Society to help us ring in the lunar new year by performing a variety of traditional, classical, folk, and contemporary guzheng music.